Thursday, December 18, 2014. Chaos and violence continue, more US
troops will be going into Iraq, a US general predicts a three year
training mission in Iraq (at least), the Ministry of Women still has no
funding, the Islamic State beheads a man accused of . . . witchery, and
much more.

Barack Obama's 'plan' for Iraq continues to remain sparse on details. But some are attempting to sketch it the outline out. Andrew Tilghman (Navy Times) quotes US
Lt Gen James Terry stating that US troops will spend a "minimum of
three years" training Iraqi soldiers. Terry also declared more US troops
would be going into Iraq.

On the subject of US troops in Iraq, the Washington Post's Erin Cunninham Tweeted the following:

On the topic of training the administration and the military brass keep spinning, others are less impressed. At Rudaw a comment offers this take, "The USA teach them to take their boots off so they can run faster."

It's hard to tell who that is more insulting to -- the US government or the Iraqi military?

The Iraqi miliary continues to struggle but the Peshmerga continues to do well.

BBC reports that the Kurds have broken the Islamic State's siege on Mount Sinjar.

Offical Benghazi Liar Dirty Rice: Our air campaign is off to a strong start and we've seen very
important successes in places like Mosul Dam, Sinjar Mountain, where we
were able to rescue many tens of thousands of civilians at risk. And
this is going to take time. So it can't be judged by merely what happens
in one particular town or in one particular region. This is going to
take time and the American people need to understand that our aim here
is long-term degradation and building the capacity of our partners.

So two months and three days after the liar claimed Mount Sinjar was
liberated and it was a US success, Mount Sinjar is liberated and it's a
Kurdish Peshmerga success

Poor Susan Rice. No one ever gets more egg on their face from the Sunday Chat & Chews.

Wanting to grab some of the Kurdish luster, US officials keep getting cozy with the Kurds.

Case in point?

The White House issued the following today:This afternoon, Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Iraqi Kurdistan
Regional President Masoud Barzani. The Vice President and President
Barzani discussed recent security and political developments. The Vice
President discussed with President Barzani the passage of congressional
legislation that removes certain undue restrictions on members of the
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
(PUK) under U.S. immigration laws. This new law should help ease the
process for many Iraqi Kurds who wish to visit the United States. The
Vice President commended the courage of the Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi
Security Forces fighting against ISIL, and President Barzani thanked the
United States and the international community for their support. Both
the Vice President and President Barzani noted the renewed cooperation
between Erbil and Baghdad and agreed to work together, alongside other
Iraqi leaders, to sustain and deepen collaboration among Iraq’s
different communities. The Vice President underscored America’s enduring
support for the Kurdish people and for the security of Iraq.

Enduring support?

Joe's always good for a few laughs.

While the Kurds continue to succeed, the Iraqi military is lucky to just struggle.

And questions continue to swirl around that failure.

Rudaw notes
Parliament is holding hearings to attempt to figure out the breakdown
of the Iraqi army. News of the Parliamentary investigation. Rudaw
readers leave some interesting comments including, "When will Maliki be
questioned?" Another offers this wish:I hope they publicize everything they find in this commission and
arrest Malaki, it's not only in Mosul the Iraqi army collapsed
completely, what about all the other regions? Malaki had hand picked
the generals in Mosul, he ignored repeated warnings about IS activity
months before Mosul fell. Just 2 days before Mosul fell he deliberately
put a Kurdish general in charge of one of the (empty) brigades, this
was the only brigade that had no weapons or even ammunition, he not only
wanted Mosul to fall but wanted to pin it on Kurds."

Those two aren't the only ones mentioning former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki. Al Arabiya News reports:The president of Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, Masoud Barzani,
blamed on Monday former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the
collapse of the Iraqi army in the face of the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS) earlier this year.In an exclusive interview
with Al Arabiya's Rima Maktabi, Barzani also said the swift collapse of
the Iraqi army came after substantial years of international support to
train and equip the military.

During the interview, he also said
that were it not for the Peshmerga forces, the northern, oil-rich city
of Kirkuk would have fallen to ISIS, which occupies almost a third of
Iraq.

Joe Biden's not the only one trying to steal the Kurds' luster. The Iraqi Embassy in DC issued the following today:

Prime
Minister Haider Al-Abadi penned an opinion piece in The Wall Street
Journal on [December] 18, 2014, to outline progress in defeating ISIS and
rebuilding a secure and stable Iraq since the formation of the new
government three months ago.The Prime Minister discussed efforts to empower local communities in
order to effectively combat ISIS. "We are restoring relationships with
the Sunni tribes that are based in areas now under Islamic State
domination. These tribes are being armed and are currently fighting
alongside Iraqi security forces."On the political front, Prime Minister Al-Abadi hailed the
"long-sought, long-term agreement" with the Kurdistan Regional
Government as a historic step that "provides for fair sharing of oil
revenues, as well as sharing the resources and responsibilities to
defend and serve all our people."He also highlighted key steps that his government has taken to
implement reforms that will serve to address the grievances of local
populations. "Because every citizen must have confidence in our system of justice,
I have signed a decree requiring our security forces and the Ministry
of Justice to safeguard the constitutional and human rights of the
detainees in Iraqi jails. There will be a central record for all
detainees, including the reason for their arrests and the timeline for
their trials."The Prime Minister noted significant gains against ISIS on the
battlefront through close coordination between the Iraqi Security
Forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga and the international coalition. He called
on international partners to step up efforts in order to accelerate the
defeat of ISIS. "We need air support, training and armaments for Iraq’s security
forces. We need our neighbors and allies to stop the flow of foreign
fighters into Iraq. And we need the international community, through its
financial institutions, to freeze the funding of Islamic State."Prime Minister Al-Abadi explained his government's approach moving
forward: "Only by rebuilding a secure and stable Iraq can we defeat the
terrorists who draw upon discontent and feed on failure." ---To read the Arabic translation of the Prime Minister's Wall Street Journal editorial click here.

The above is a summary of a December 18, 2014 article from The Wall Street Journal. To see the full article, click here.

While that's what Haider wrote, what the song he sang in his heart to the Kurds went something like this:

I have your poster close to my bed
Earphones glued to my head
But I'd rather have you in my arms insteadAnd I'd be better than I was before
If only I had you
If only I had
If only I had
If only I had your
Stardust
Your glamour is golden
Stardust
I'd feel so important
Stardust
If only I knew you
Stardust
I want to be near you
Stardust
-- "Stardust," lyrics by Carly Simon, music by Carly and Mike Mainieri, first appears on Carly's Come Upstairs

President Obama spoke by phone today with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider
al-Abadi to discuss the political and security situation in Iraq and the
progress of Iraqi Security Forces in their efforts to counter ISIL.
The President commended the steps that Prime Minister al-Abadi has taken
in the first three months of his administration to govern inclusively
and begin building a united front among Iraqis to combat ISIL. The
President congratulated the Prime Minister on the conclusion of the
recent oil revenue-sharing arrangement with the Kurdistan Regional
Government and reiterated his commitment to supporting the Iraqi
Security Forces’ success through train and assist programs, provision of
weapons and equipment, and airstrikes. He also noted U.S. support for
the Iraqi government’s ongoing efforts to integrate Sunni tribal
fighters into Iraq’s security institutions.

While Barack was happy to talk about that, he remains silent on whether or not US troops in Iraq were in combat this week.

American troops in Iraq had their first
actual battle with ISIS troops after the Islamist militants tried to
overrun a base, an encounter that left the ISIS troops decimated and in
retreat.

The attack took place near the Ein al-Asad base, which includes close
to 100 U.S. military advisers. The U.S. troops, armed with “light and
medium weapons,” and were able to inflict casualties against the ISIS
fighters, forcing them to retreat, Shafaq News
reported. The American troops were also aided by fighter jets, which
directed air strikes against the ISIS troops that “silenced their heavy
sources of fire.”“US forces intervened because of ISIS started to come near the base,
which they are stationed in so out of self-defense,” said Sheikh Mahmud
Nimrawi, a prominent tribal leader.

Since he has promised US troops on the ground in Iraq would not be in
combat, if they were in combat, the White House needs to be the first to
note what took place.

Let's change topics . . .

Sorcerer
Who is the master
A man and woman on a star stream
In the middle of a snow dream
Sorcerer
Show me the high life
Come over
Let me put you on ice
-- "Sorcerer," words and music by Stevie Nicks, first appears on her Trouble in Shangri-La

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Thursday beheaded a man
publicly on charges that he was a "sorcerer," north of their bastion of
Tikrit, the Islamist militant organization and residents said.The group released pictures of the execution on a square in Nahyat al-Alam, a town a few kilometers north of Tikrit.

The Islamic State killing people for being sorcerer is actually less
shocking that Nouri al-Maliki sending his Ministry of Interior employees
into schools to tell Iraq's young adults and children that emo youth
were actually vampires who sucked people's blood. And that was Nouri's
Ministry. He refused to nominate anyone to head it so he could control
it.

There are no real women's rights in Iraq. The US government pretty much
destroyed those with the invasion of Iraq and the installation of
fundamentalists as well as efforts in the original drafts of the Iraqi
Constitution -- overseen by the US government -- to strip women of all
rights.

If the meeting was at all serious, wouldn't they need the Minister for the State of Women's Affairs to be present?

NIQASH: Most international studies are critical of the status of Iraqi women. What plans does your Ministry have to improve this situation?

Bayan Nouri: We have a strategy with
six different platforms and these are legal, educational,
health-related, professional and leadership-related as well as assisting
institutions that work on women’s issues.

There is no doubt that the situation for women has
worsened over the past four years and it certainly cannot be repaired in
four years. However, we will continue to try, in all areas, to improve
the situation by paying more attention to family protection units,
assisting them to reduce domestic violence. We also want to improve the
economic status of Iraqi women by granting small loans in coordination
with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. We will also coordinate
with the Ministry of Education in order to look more closely at the
education of females because there is a big gap between the number of
females and males who complete middle and secondary school. We are also
coordinating better with the Ministry of Health, paying better attention
to women’s health and to infant mortality rates. We also care about
female participation in decision making.

NIQASH: After decades of conflict, Iraq has a huge number of widows – an estimated one million. Can your Ministry help them?

Nouri: I have only been in office for
about 50 days and during that time, the federal budget for 2014 wasn’t
even approved. We do have plans for 2015 though and these involve seeing
a percentage of these widows employed or to have them improve their own
financial situation through small business loans. We also want to
provide residential units at discounted prices.

NIQASH: At one stage, you said that domestic
violence was actually the most common kind of violence in Iraq – despite
all of the fighting that is going on.

Nouri: We’re trying to hold training
courses in this area, we have established family protection units and we
also have draft family protection law before the Cabinet. When this law
is passed, it’s going to have a big impact.

Like Nouri al-Maliki, Haider al-Abadi refuses to fund the Ministry of Women.

For those who've forgotten, this became a public issue in Nouri's first term.

All this time later, with a new prime minister, there's still no fund for the Ministry of Women.

All Iraq News reports Haider's dropped all lawsuits against journalists. These were Nouri's lawsuits. Haider issued the following statements:

"Based on the freedom of journalism and supporting the journalists, Abadi
decided to cancel all the judicial complaints submitted by the CoM
against the journalists in order to have a bigger role for the media
outlets to contribute in building Iraq and serving the Iraqis."

That is great . . .

except . . .

Nouri didn't always sue.

He had no respect for the press -- something only the BBC would note in
July of 2006 and, yes, we can go back to that because that was a
shameful period for the western press.

But he only started filing lawsuits -- most infamously against the
Guardian newspaper -- after he'd been in office awhile and had gotten a
taste of negative press.

Haider's had nothing but flowers and chocolates from the western press.

Meaning?

He's dropping Nouri's lawsuits.

Big deal.

They were over when Nouri was forced out as prime minister anyway.

He issued some flowery words and that's really all it was.

No one knows how he will react to negative press.

It's silly to pretend a politician who's gotten nothing but high praise
from supposed to be skeptical reporters is a friend of the press.

About Me

I'm a black working mother. I love to laugh and between work and raising kids, I need a good laugh. I'm also a community member of The Common Ills. Shout outs to any Common Ills community members stopping by. Big shout out to C.I. for all the help getting this started. I am not married to Thomas Friedman, credit me with better taste, please. This site is a parody.